NORTH Wales bereavement counsellors cried with the victims of the terrorist attack in New York as they struggled to come to terms with the scale of the tragedy which may have killed more than 7,000 people.

Dr Lyn Franchino, from Pant Glas, near Caernarfon, said: "We cried plenty, we laughed a lot, we were inspired. People there dealt with it in such a dignified way. They were exceptional and we have all supported each other."

Ten Cruse counsellors flew out to New York at short notice in the aftermath of the terrorist attack two weeks ago - and nearly half of them were from North Wales.

Three of them flew back yesterday and spoke of the enormous scale of the tragedy in New York and the colossal grief each and every family involved in the atrocity is experiencing.

Former senior police officer Lorraine Johnson, from Colwyn Bay said she had been trained to deal with disasters and major incidents, but was unprepared for the scale of the terrorist attack on New York.

"But I don't think anyone could have envisaged such a catastrophe and so many lives lost, a phenomenal number. It's a desperate tragedy. I don't think anyone could be fully prepared for the scale of such a tragedy.

"We were overwhelmed by the kindness and support of the people in New York."

Her colleague, Gwen Aaron, from Rhiwlas, said she would never forget the harrowing scenes at Ground Zero, where once the twin towers of the World Trade Centre had stood.

"It moved me a great deal. The scenes made me feel humble but I also feel privileged in a way to have gone over there and helped someone and to see the people of New York in their grief and shouldering it so proudly.

"A widow described to me how her husband went away that morning and never came back, leaving her and three little children in New Jersey. She was crying and we cried," she said.

Lyn Franchino, a freelance trainer, is originally from Indiana, in the American Mid-West, and has visited New York on numerous occasions.

She said last night: "We used to go there all the time but sadly now the places where we used to go like Chinatown and Little Italy are very much in the affected area. There's a look of sadness and silence there because so many people have gone."

Gwen found the posters put up all over the city particularly haunting.

"Happy smiling photos of people and then personal details of their hair, colour of eyes and so on and a plea 'Have you seen this person?' It was really very, very sad. Then, and as the week went on, they became more and more tattered. There was a rainstorm one day and the ink began to run and they looked very forlorn," she said.

The team stayed in the same hotel as grieving British families and were on hand 24 hours a day to supply comfort, advice and care to the hundreds of mourners.

They escorted families to Ground Zero to enable them to see the disaster scene at first hand and to help them prepare for their emotional reactions over the coming months.

"The families were bereft. They were often very, very stressed but nearly all of them wanted to go to Ground Zero.

"There people were standing around in silence looking at it. Quite often the families we accompanied down there burst into tears when they saw it. They were still hoping their relatives were still alive and, when they saw it, it was clear there was no chance.

"It's a big square of rubble with cranes, lorries and very busy. There was a great deal of activity there. The towers had come straight down and no one could have survived that."

Lyn added: "They wanted to visit as near as possible to Ground Zero. They couldn't get very close because it is obviously a crime scene, it's a mass murder scene and it was well cordoned off but you could certainly see the devastation of the buildings. Some chose to go, while others decided not to, but a number of families were coming into New York with hope but as soon as they saw the devastation reality started to set in and the hopes they may have had diminished.

"That was a very difficult time for the families."

They also accompanied them through the process of registering and gathering as much information as possible about the victims.

Gwen said: "This included taking DNA evidence. The Americans catered for everything and, despite the worst of the atrocities, they ensured the human touch.

"They were split into canvas cubicles and in each was always fresh flowers and a number of families commented on this. It was a nice touch."

Another difficult task they faced was to help parents find the correct words to tell young children about what had happened.

Lorraine said: "We all know and believe it's better for the mum to break the bad news herself but, bearing in mind the mums were in grief themselves and struggling, Cruse counsellors assisted the police in helping the mother to choose the right words to break the news to the children."

They believe coming to terms with the grief in the USA will take a long time and the bereaved families will need continual support and counselling

Lyn said: "One of the problems bereaved people have is having no body or if there are great long delays in finding a body or identifying things that belonged to them. At the moment there are vast numbers, over 6,000, missing persons and some of those possibly will never be identified.

"The waiting is the most difficult period." Revenge, she added, was not mentioned by any of the grieving British families they had met.

"What has to be realised is that people, especially earlier in the week, were coming over hoping to find their loved ones. Hopefully they would be alive, perhaps not, but they would find them and in some way take them home.

"As it became clear that wasn't possible, there was some anger but that's normal. They were not calling for revenge, that is yet to come," she said.

Support for the counsellors is also being provided by their colleagues. Lyn said that started while they were in the USA last week and will continue now that they have returned to Wales.

"We were using that all through the week and as well we've got the North Wales Trauma team. They will be there for us straight away and if we don't realise we need their support our colleagues will and make sure we have it."

Dr Arthur O'Hara, leader of the Cruse team in New York, told a news conference at Heathrow airport of the enormity of grief each and every family involved in the tragedy was experiencing.

"Many of the relatives are still in shock and have not yet reached a point where they are ready to move forward in the process of grieving," he said.

"Returning home and coming to terms with the finality of their loss will be very difficult for them for weeks, months and years to come, and Cruse will continue to offer support as they try to make sense of their loss and find a way through their grief.

"Aside from the Cruse support, the bereaved people have derived an enormous amount of comfort from the people of New York who share the weight of their sadness while being extremely supportive, welcoming and positive about the future."

The team of counsellors confirmed that none of the British relatives who flew to New York to find their loved ones discovered anyone they were searching for alive.

Cruse president Colin Murray Parkes, who flew back from New York earlier this week, said: "We have all cried with each other at some time over the past week and have been there to support one another.

"We have been offering emotional aid and offering advice on how to deal with people's natural and quite justifiable anger. This has been a particularly traumatic type of disaster and many people we spoke with were in denial and unable to accept their loved ones were dead and not just missing."

The Cruse volunteers have training in traumatic bereavement and have helped comfort families after the Omagh bombing, Hillsborough, Zeebrugge, Bradford and King's Cross disasters.

The team of counsellors said that, of all the British families they had spoken to while in New York, revenge was not mentioned by any of them.

L Anyone who wants to help Cruse in their work or to assist in fund-raising should contact their local branch in Bangor on 01248-372727 or Colwyn Bay on 01492-532268.